Why isn’t life really like that though?

The unofficial theme for this quarterly roundup is “companion animals.” It felt right to choose this theme at the end of a rough and trying year when many of us have come to appreciate the animals in our lives even more than we did before, what with all the physical distancing and lockdowns depriving us of human company.

Gollum suffers from the stigma that all users who don’t have the luxury and wealth to maintain social appearances do.

And I feel like there are just so many layers to Popsicle Pete.

The unofficial theme for this Short Fiction Treasures column is “arts, crafts, and work.” Whether the art, craft, or work is the main theme of the story, or whether it’s there as background and setting, it can add a level of immersion and satisfying texture to speculative fiction that I find irresistible.

This is what happens when you create a time paradox. You get mashed by space-time forces.

Platforms are not created to be equal—power dynamics tend to replicate themselves, unless there is a foundation, a structure, specifically addressing them, and a continuing conversation of checks and balances to ensure equality

The unofficial theme for this edition of Short Fiction Treasures is “family.” Family has been on my mind a lot this year, with the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way we spend more time with, or are thoroughly separated from, our loved ones. Family relationships are a crucial part of all our lives, but these relationships can be both complicated and conflicted, something that is explored in this selection of stories.

I didn’t expect this story to be so bonkers actually.

For this first quarterly roundup of speculative fiction, put together in such difficult times, Maria Haskins' unofficial theme is hope and happiness, resilience and resistance.